That’s Carl Icahn (above) showing up Michael Dell as the battle for ownership of the computer giant goes into overtime. (AP)

Dell’s board is starting to have a big credibility problem.

Complaints from shareholders, which had quietly piled up over recent weeks, roared out loud yesterday after Dell’s special committee decided to postpone the vote on a $24.4 billion buyout.

The major gripe? That the committee was losing sight of shareholders in favor of one in particular — Michael Dell.

“The only reason to delay [the shareholder meeting] is because the votes aren’t there to get it done,” noted Richard Pzena, a New York investor in Dell, referring to the committee’s decision to scuttle yesterday’s shareholder vote on Michael Dell’s offer — and move it to July 24.

Like Pzena, a slew of shareholders, including Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management, have been griping that the committee — headed by Alex Mandl — was too quick to fall in line behind founder Dell’s $13.65-a-share Silver Lake-backed bid to take the computer company private.

The vote yesterday — with the tally running strongly against Michael Dell — was postponed minutes before it was going to be finalized at the PC-maker’s Round Rock, Tex., headquarters.

Gary Lutin, a consultant at Shareholder Forum, said “M&A professionals are amazed to see a supposedly unbiased special committee hiring public relations advisers and doing road shows to pitch a deal. Their antics seem to be focused only on proving they have no personal legal liabilities instead of on the real interests of either the company or its shareholders.”

The committee seemed to ignore shareholder unrest and, in a statement, pinned the anxiety solely on Carl Icahn, who has been leading the charge against the offer — claiming Michael Dell is looking to get the company on the cheap.

“We wish to note that it is unfortunate Mr. Icahn continues to conduct his campaign by trying to discredit the special committee and accuse it of frightening Dell stockholders,” the committee said.

With Michael Dell not voting his 16 percent stake, proponents of the buyout offer needed 42 percent of shareholder to approve the deal. They failed. Roughly 30 percent abstained — which counted as a “no” vote.

The committee is expected to use the extra six days to woo shareholders — likely telling them the offer isn’t going to be raised. Some, perhaps engaging in extreme gamesmanship, floated the idea of a 50-cent special dividend to entice holdouts.

One index investor said, “What you are hearing is something [the dividend] that is plausible, and my guess is if they take that step it will be in response to testing it with some fence-sitters first to see if that would win them over.”

The buyout battle, waged over six months, has, in some views, also left the Dell committee vulnerable if the buyout does not succeed.

One Dell analyst, requesting anonymity, said the special committee has been so bearish in its forecasts for the company as it tried to get shareholders to vote for Michael Dell that he will have to change his projections if the buyout fails.

Meanwhile Icahn is trying to sign up a big-name executive this week who he could announce would run Dell under his leadership.